The School Committee held their annual hearing on the proposed fiscal year 2026-27 budget on March 5. The hearing is required by Massachusetts Law and is an opportunity for community members to provide feedback. The final School Committee vote is scheduled for March 19. The district’s budget will then be presented for approval by voters at Acton Town Meeting on May 5 and Boxborough Town Meeting on May 19.
During his update to the School Committee on February 26, Superintendent of Schools Peter Light announced that Acton-Boxborough Regional High School was awarded gold level status on the College Board’s Advanced Placement (AP) School Honor Roll. The Honor Roll recognizes high schools across the country that are demonstrating success in maintaining a college-ready culture through challenging coursework and student performance. Just seven percent of 5,723 eligible high schools received gold level status in 2025 for maintaining high exam scores and increased participation over time. According to Light, AP participation has jumped by fifty percent in the last few years with no decline in student performance.
Light also shared that the AB Girls Varsity Basketball Team was named the 2026 Dual County League (DCL) champions, finishing their season with a record nine wins and one loss. The newly formed Concord-Carlisle/Acton-Boxborough Boys’ Fencing Team also captured the 2026 state championship.
Blanchard Elementary School Music Educator Margie Callaghan has been named the 2026 recipient of the Donna Nagle Award for Excellence in General Music by the Massachusetts Music Educators Association. The award celebrates outstanding leadership and dedication in the field of general music education.
AB Forward Update
The School Committee began a preliminary discussion at their February 26 meeting on renaming the Merriam, McCarthy-Towne, Douglas, and Gates elementary schools, which will open their doors this fall as new, grade-banded schools.
Renaming is required because the wording of the January 22 approved motion to close all five Acton elementary schools effective June 30, 2026 directs the School Committee to create four new “as yet unnamed” schools effective July 1, 2026.
School Committee discussion focused on the merits and drawbacks of retaining the familiar, current names of Acton’s elementary schools which honor the memory of prominent, beloved, local educators Florence Merriam, Julia McCarthy and Marion Towne, Luther Conant, Carolyn Douglas, and school physician Paul P. Gates.
Members expressed strong opinions both for and against maintaining each school’s current name. Several members advocated for a process that engages the community in the renaming effort following School Committee policy and procedures that guide the naming of school facilities.
In the meantime, the Committee endorsed temporary designations for each school for internal administrative purposes and to meet requirements set out by the Massachusetts Department of Education which requires districts to report changes to a school’s organizational structure or identity to the Department and ensure that the state’s databases are updated for accurate reporting. The temporary names are: Boardwalk Campus Lower School (K-3), Boardwalk Campus Upper School (4-6), Parker Damon Lower School (K-3), and Parker Damon Upper School (4-6).
At their March 5 meeting, the School Committee unanimously approved the appointment of members Andrew Schwartz and Liz Fowlkes as co-chairs of a newly created AB Forward Transition and Engagement Task Force.
According to Schwartz and Fowlkes, the charge of the Task Force will be to bring parents, students, teachers, principals, and community members together during a critical period of transition to foster connection and a sense of unity, celebrate legacy, catalogue existing elementary school best practices and traditions, brainstorm new traditions, facilitate school community and culture-building through initiatives and events, and be a conduit for parents to become involved in their schools as Acton’s elementary schools are re-formed.
Superintendent of Schools Peter Light reported that principals and district leaders are already beginning to brainstorm on how elementary schools can celebrate their school communities as Acton’s K-6 schools close at the end of the school year. Light told the Committee, “When I talked to principals about the proposed Task Force, they were excited about getting help into the summer and into the beginning of the school year and were curious about how the work of the Task Force might relate to planned, school-based visioning and intersect with their ability to work with the re-formed Acton-Boxborough’s Parent-Teacher-Student Organizations (PTSOs).”
Chair Tori Campbell, who voiced support for the Task Force during the Committee’s initial discussion on February 26, said she sees the Task Force as playing an important role during an extremely critical period during the summer months. “That’s not something administrators or teachers can make happen. That feels like a gap where we could be supporting community-building and helping PTSOs get up and running.”
As discussion continued on March 5, Committee members briefly discussed possible deliverables that included a set of recommendations or a calendar of events that the Task Force would provide to elementary principals to implement in all three, new Acton elementary schools.
Superintendent of School Peter Light reminded Committee members not to overstep their role. “Think about ways to push out recommendations that don’t put the School Committee directing the operations of the schools. The intent of this is good and is the right thing to be doing. I don’t disagree with it at all but want a buffer in place for the principals,” Light said.
As the district continues to plan for the big changes ahead, the school district has turned to surveys as a community engagement tool that is serving as an important feedback loop to guide decision-making.
The district received over 500 responses to a survey that closed in February entitled, “AB Forward Implementation: Insights to Action”. The survey asked elementary school staff and families to share their concerns and priorities for smoothing the transition as elementary students and staff are reassigned to new schools.
Top priorities included timely, transparent communication, thoughtful planning around community-building that involves stakeholders, facilitating connections for students and staff through formal and informal events prior to the start of the 2026-27 school year, providing adequate social and emotional supports; maintaining high educational standards and sharing best practices across schools; continuity of staffing; supporting staff logistically during the transition; and ensuring high-quality professional learning so that school staff can support the individualized needs of students with disabilities.
The district has utilized the AB Forward webpage as a resource to house informational webinars for families, FAQs, an implementation roadmap listing important dates, and updates on the development of geography-based school assignments for elementary school families.
Heather Stouch, the district’s coordinator of social emotional learning and mental and behavioral health, provided a detailed, comprehensive overview on March 5 detailing how the district is leveraging current partnerships and strengthening supports (including the addition of elementary counselors) to help families and staff during this time of uncertainty and change. The presentation was the results of a coordinated effort led by The Acton-Boxborough Community Wellness Advisory Council and Working Group.
Community resources specific to mental health and wellness are listed on the AB Forward Community Wellness webpage.
The district received over 1700 responses to two community surveys that have provided families of elementary school students with opportunities to weigh in on key decision points that are informing how students will be assigned to elementary schools next year as the district moves to geography-based enrollment.
The feedback has allowed consultant Nick Stellitano from the nonprofit Dillinger Research and Applied Design to use aggregated data to build and tweak prototype maps that reflect community priorities of walkability and neighborhood contiguity and align with district objectives of demographic diversity and zoning that is sustainable over time. Stellitano intentionally designed an iterative process to maximize community input and has presented twice to the School Committee who has final say on geographic zones.
Stellitano announced at the Committee’s March 5 meeting that he will return to the Committee on March 19 to finalize the parameters that will inform a final zoning map and, in the interim, will continue to accept feedback via a final survey or email.
